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Community Appraisal - a View from Histon & Impington

Community Appraisal - a View from Histon & Impington. Denis W Payne Group Chair. Histon & Impington. Two villages - two parishes (and two Councils) but one community A small town? - 3,000+ homes, 7,500 people Well resourced: two Anglican churches; Methodist; Baptist; Salvation Army

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Community Appraisal - a View from Histon & Impington

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  1. Community Appraisal - a View from Histon & Impington Denis W Payne Group Chair

  2. Histon & Impington • Two villages - two parishes (and two Councils) but one community • A small town? - 3,000+ homes, 7,500 people • Well resourced: • two Anglican churches; Methodist; Baptist; Salvation Army • two Post Offices, banks, building society • food/non-food shops; garage (petrol and repair) • Library • Nursery, Infants, Junior schools; Village College • Doctors, dentists • local (private) hospital • 35% people work locally (1991); 4000 jobs • sheltered housing provision

  3. Histon & Impington • But: • no village hall • no youth club (though uniformed groups exist) • crime & disorder target - youth • no local newsletter/newspaper/village magazine • significant traffic issues - just north of A14, north of Cambridge • suffering from development pressures - and threats • lacking public open space - what there is isn’t necessarily where people are • environment - litter, grass cutting, planting schemes • Parish Governance?

  4. Project • Parish Council initiated - significant ongoing contribution • Support of ACRE (Deborah Willis) • Launch event - team together • Launch event drove questionnaire • Questionnaire development challenging • Distribution and collection June/July 2001 - 974 questionnaires returned; 1773 respondents plus returns from Junior School (~200) and Village College (~170) • Data entry time consuming - large team doing this • Planning event - May 2002 • Money not a problem - Parish Councils, District Council, Lottery etc

  5. Lessons • Questions are difficult • you’ll be accused of a political agenda whatever you ask • they need not only to be relevant, but also things people may be prepared to “have a go” at • A portion of residents will deny having received questionnaire - even though you know you put it through their door • Teams are vital - “managing group” and distributors/collectors; inputters • It takes time • You won’t “win” everything, nor get action on everything that ought to be covered • 30% can be a good turnout (cf local elections!)

  6. What have we achieved? • Before appraisal results published - but after we started the process: • youth club • village newspaper • litter picking, bulb planting • And now: • community centre group • action re recreation facilities • inter-working (at least communication) between groups • youth shelter plans • skateboarding club • environment group - litter picks, bulb planting and much more

  7. Achieved? • public open space opportunity • transport actions • material on development to take to SCDC • some engagement with youth issues, and young people (joint Councils Youth Committee) • Police vision (publicly stated) “Neighbourhood Watch Village”

  8. Not so good? • Questions • some very good, very relevant - but very limited number of people able to see, and commit to, actions • lots of free text input - difficult to analyse • Percentage return varies dramatically with distributor/collector • Difficulty (to date) engaging with other Councils over results • Community commitment to action

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